This Tax Day, author and reformed financier Morris Pearl sets the record straight on current tax policy and the GOP’s new tax law

Nationwide – How can a working person who earns $77,000 in income pay $6,000 in taxes while a “millionaire sitting on a beach sipping strawberry daiquiris” pay zero on their $77,000 capital gains? Former Blackrock executive Morris Pearl answers this question and many more about the impacts of the GOP tax plan in his new book, How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire: Taxes, published by Patriotic Millionaires and Strong Arm Press.

“I want to challenge my fellow millionaires to get their heads out of the sand,” Pearl writes in the book. “I’d rather fix things than retreat into a gated community with a private security force while the world outside the gates falls apart. You are destroying the country, our country, my country, and I’m not going to stand for it.”

The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have promised that their tax bill would bring big benefits to working families and small businesses – lowering taxes, creating jobs, and growing the economy. As Pearl’s book makes clear, this is the exact opposite of the truth. The tax bill instead represents a massive transfer of wealth from working people to the fortunate few.

Despite the millions already spent by the Koch brothers and other conservative groups to sell the legislation, voters in bellwether special elections haven’t been fooled. Just yesterday, the legislation’s chief architect – House Speaker Paul Ryan – announced he won’t seek reelection in the face of a strong challenge by iron worker Randy Bryce.

Now, Pearl and the Patriotic Millionaires intend to carry the truth about the GOP tax plan to voters in battleground states through Election Day.

The book will be unveiled on Tax Day at an event in Washington, DC, featuring elected leaders like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, and progressive champions like Jeff Weaver, former campaign manager for Bernie Sanders.

To RSVP for the event or to obtain a copy of the book, contact Sam Quigley at [email protected].

In How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire: Taxes, Pearl – a self-proclaimed traitor to his class – sets the record straight, detailing how tax policy is designed to reward money over work and how the new tax bill will make it even harder for those who work to get ahead. Drawing on his experience as a former BlackRock executive, Pearl explains how a millionaire could make thousands off their investments without logging a single day at the office, while a working person would pay thousands in taxes on the same earnings from a full-time job.

The book calls attention to many of the high-profile millionaires and billionaires who have pushed for changes to the tax code that further disadvantage working people, including:

David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group, who has defended the carried interest loophole and – after donating money to repair the Washington Monument – scratched his initials into the marble.

LinkedIn and PayPal exec Keith Rabois, who threatened to quit venture capital if the carried interest loophole were closed.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who cut thousands of jobs despite paying just an 8% tax rate – all while using the promise of job growth to push for more corporate tax cuts.

The book will be published by Strong Arm Press, which was founded in 2017 to be a progressive publishing house responsive to readers who want books to fuel and inform their increasingly active approach to politics.

Pearl serves as Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors working to disrupt the concentration of wealth and power in America. Their mission is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system.

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About the Patriotic Millionaires

Proud “traitors to their class,” members of the Patriotic Millionaires are high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America. The mission of The Patriotic Millionaires organization is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the “first principles” of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system. You can find out more at http://patrioticmillionaires.org/about/

The Patriotic Millionaires have appeared on hundreds of media outlets here and abroad, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and many others. You can find more coverage at http://patrioticmillionaires.org/media

2 hours ago
Call this what it is – a poll tax by any other name. Restricting a person’s right to vote based on their financial situation is discriminatory, undemocratic, and just plain wrong. https://t.co/XRnfPDVhmp

2 hours ago
When the federal government refuses to deliver, we bring the fight home. Illinois, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, DC, New York City, and now Maryland are showing us how to get the change we need. https://t.co/Z5sclDNErU

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About

The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who are committed to building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation. The group focuses on promoting public policy solutions that encourage political equality; guarantee a sustaining wage for working Americans; and ensure that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay a greater percentage of taxes.